More days passed by and Granny Smith had been correct in stating that the Sisterhooves Social wasn't far off. Preparations for the annual event began at the farm and stands were set up, tracks were chalked, and hay bales and other obstacles were brought out. It was tedious work, sure, but at least it meant a temporary halt to the usual farm work and more free time to go to Ponyville and the like. Again, Big Mac's number one motivation was staying away from Applejack. They had both been chalking the lines for the track and Applejack had been beside him, and had bumped into him with her rump. Accident or not, Big Mac didn't know but whatever it had been Applejack took the opportunity to jump on him on made out with him. For some reason, whatever reason, Big McIntosh actually kissed her back this time. He realized what he was doing though and ran away from her shortly afterwards.

The time that he was spending in Ponyville now was spent juggling between Rarity and Twilight. As dirty and low as he felt, for some reason he couldn't turn Rarity away from him. She was every bit as lovable as Twilight Sparkle and had some extreme qualities too. He wanted to tell Twilight what happened between himself and Rarity so badly, but out of fear he just couldn't bring himself to do it. Every night he slept was a nightmare as he worried about Applejack finding out from them, or one of them finding out from the other. Whenever he walked to the library or to the boutique, he approached it with a great amount of nervousness and fear. He felt so low and dirty for doing Twilight how he was, and doing Rarity like he was too, but still, for some strange and unknown reason, he just liked it.

In any event, all of these preparations at the farm allowed him some time to relax through what he did best: working. It was hard and demanding work to prepare for this event, but still it allowed him to relax and be alone with his thoughts. He tried to wrap things up as quickly and efficiently as he could because that would mean that they would already be done and that he wouldn't have to be with Applejack. Thankfully enough, it was already the last day of preparation for the everything and Big Mac was finally truly alone today because Applejack was off practicing with Applebloom and Granny Smith was cooped up in the house going over her opening speech.

Big Mac had to admit that he looked forward to these games. It was fun to watch and see everpony having fun and it also generated a pretty good profit for the farm too, admission and concessions taken into account. The end of the day was coming on fast and Big McIntosh had been tasked with running a final check on everything before the festivities. For the most part, they had all done a very good job of setting up, as usual. However, there were some of the usual things that he had to address; concession stands with wheels that had been unlocked, some missing nails in the stands, some out of alignment obstacles that would prove for an unfair game and the like.

It took him a good few hours to finish up with everything that needed to be finished and by the time he had put all of his tools back up he could see that moonrise wasn't far off. The extra-tedious work had worn him out and Big Mac felt that it would be OK if he retired early tonight. He walked up to the farmhouse, entered into his room, and was out shortly after. Once more, he had more of the nightmares involving the twisted tangle of love that he had gotten himself involved in with Applejack, Twilight Sparkle, and Rarity. He tossed and he turned all night and even woke up in a cold sweat several times. He had a glass of water sitting on his nightstand and would take a sip of it each time he woke up. He worried that he might not get enough sleep tonight. He had to man the concession stand tomorrow, leave when one of the farmhands came to take his place, and then he would be tasked with going around and picking up garbage and performing general maintenance.

He didn't really know what time it was, though he assumed sometime in the early morning hours, but he eventually was able to get into a dreamless sleep. It was peaceful to sleep without any dreams. He would need it for tomorrow. Big McIntosh wasn't sure what was going to happen and didn't know how anything was going to go, but if one thing was certain to him he knew that he was going to work up a sweat tomorrow.